Joseph D. Foukona

Accepting new graduate students? TBD

Ph.D.: Australian National University (2018)

LLM: Victoria University of Wellington (2003)

LLM, LLB: University of the South Pacific (2001, 2000)

Background

Joseph D. Foukona was born and raised in Honiara, Solomon Islands. He received his LLB and LLM degrees from the University of the South Pacific in 2000 and 2001, and an LLM from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2003. He completed a PhD on land, law and history at the Australian National University. Joseph was a lecturer for ten years at the University of the South Pacific. He has undertaken research on customary land tenure, climate change and natural disaster displacements and relocation, urban land, land reform, constitutional, and governance issues in the Pacific. Through research, training, and teaching experience Joseph has detailed working knowledge of development and governance, land, law, and history in the Pacific region. His work has been recognized through professional associations, publications, and academic awards.

Representative Publications

• Radclyffe, Charles James Tekarawa, and Joseph D. Foukona. “Using Kastom Evidence in Court: A Legal and Archaeological Review of the Intersection between Indigenous Cultural Heritage, Land Ownership, and Law in Solomon Islands.” International Journal of Cultural Property, First View, January 26, 2026, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0940739126100216.
• Fitzpatrick, D., Compton, C and Foukona, J. “Property and the State or ‘The Folly of Torrens’: A Comparative Perspective.” New South Wales Law Journal 42:3 (2019) 953-980.
• Foukona, J. “Political Review in Melanesia: Solomon Islands.” The Contemporary Pacific, 30:2 (2019) 531-539.
• Foukona, J and Allen, M. “Urban Land in Solomon Islands: Powers of Exclusion and Counter Exclusion.” In Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia (2017) 85-110.
• Foukona, J. “The Rules of the Game: Legal and Political Influences over Land Access in Honiara.” Development Bulletin, 78: (2017) 21-25.
• Foukona, J and Timmer, J. “The Culture of Agreement Making in Solomon Islands.” Oceania, 862 (2016) 116-131.
• Foukona, J. “Urban Land in Honiara: Strategies and Rights to the City.” The Journal of Pacific History, 50:4 (2015) 504-518.